Doctor delivers Pontiac’s first baby of year Jan. 3: After practising medicine for eight years, Dr. Lucie Mutchmore assumed there would come a time when she would be the attending physician for the first birth of the year. Well, on Jan. 3, 2001, Dr. Mutchmore was in the Pontiac Community Hospital for the first birth of the year, only she was on the other side of the doctor-patient equation. 

“I always thought I would deliver the first baby as a doctor, not as a patient,” said Dr. Mutchmore, adding Dr. Pascal Croteau was the attending physician.

At 4:15 a.m., Dr. Mutchmore became a mom for the second time, giving birth to a dark-haired, brown-eyed girl, Addie Jacinthe Derouin, who measured 20 inches long and weighed in at eight pounds two ounces. 

Contributing to the comfort of expecting mothers are the new birthing rooms at the hospital. Obstetrics is now equipped with two large and one small birthing rooms, complete with plenty of cupboards, a television, refrigerator and a couch. “It’s a real treat,” Lucie said. There were 107 babies born at the hospital in 2000, down 23 per cent from 139 in 1999.

Police investigation of dog deaths put on hold: The MRC des Collines police have all but closed the investigation into the killing of two Giant Schnauzers belonging to an immigrant Russian family late last year.

“We have no leads at all,” says police spokesperson Lt. Robert Dawson, “therefore, the case is closed for the time being. We have no other evidence, witnesses or suspects.”

Dawson says the MRC des Collines police are “aware of the problem in the area,” but have exhausted its investigative tool chest to try to find the killer(s) of the dogs.

The dogs, belonging to Alexandre and Luba Khorochkov, of the 3rd Concession near Goldmine Road, were found dead Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. The first had been shot and dumped into a nearby creek; the second was found dead in its dog house, probably poisoned.